Guilt offering
A guilt offering (Hebrew: ashamot), also referred to as a trespass offering, is a type of Biblical sacrifice, specifically a sacrifice made as a compensation payment[1]. Such compensation usually took the form of an unblemished ram, as a penalty, in addition to the victim being given restitution of the loss, plus an additional 20% of the value of the loss[2]. Monetary restitution had to be given in the pre-exile version of the currency (the shekel of the sanctuary), rather than the currency of the time, leading to the presence of currency exhanges in the temple (hence the New Testament narrative of Jesus and the Money Changers).
Such compensation payments were given on occasion of:
- infringing the rights of the priests to portions of other sacrifices (referred to in the text as God's holy things)[3]
- unknown potential infringement of the regulations - as these infringements were unknown and possibly non-existent, this was voluntary (or rather just in case) and the restitution aspect was suspended[4]
- cheating a kinsman by
- theft
- finding lost property and lying about it
- false oaths
- extortion
Notes and citations
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